The management of equipment inventory involves many different tasks that begins with the procurement of equipment and ending with the retirement or sale of such equipment. During the useful life of equipment, various information related to the equipment and associated tasks may need to be tracked and monitored, including, for example, procurement, installation, location, repair, testing, transportation/shipping, monitoring, evaluation, and historical record keeping. All of these present serious challenges to both unregulated and regulated companies. Regulated companies, such as electric utility distribution companies, must track, monitor, and evaluate additional information to meet regulatory requirements, such as for economic regulation and environmental compliance.
Electric utility distribution companies, for example, must manage large amounts of expensive capital equipment, such as distribution transformers, which must be procured, shipped, installed, monitored, repaired, and tested across, often, large geographic areas, while complying with all regulatory requirements related thereto. An adequate inventory of such distribution transformers must be managed so that transformers are stocked and available at appropriate locations when needed. A large volume of information is required to manage such equipment inventory and all of the associated tasks.
Equipment inventory, such as the electrical equipment mentioned above that is used by regulated electric utility distribution companies, are often extremely expensive and may account for a large portion of a companies overall assets. Such electrical equipment inventory may include, for example, transformers, voltage regulators, capacitors, relays, reclosures, and batteries. Excess equipment inventory may increase a companies overall holding or carrying costs, result in lower profits and lost investment opportunity, and may delay or reduce other needed capital expenditures. Inaccurate tracking and monitoring of equipment inventory could result in regulatory fines, such as those due to environmental violations and shipping violations.
Unfortunately, the tracking, monitoring, and evaluation of equipment inventory is often complex and involves many different systems due to the wide range of functions and tasks that are involved. This often requires software systems and multiple databases that must be constantly coordinated and synchronized to ensure accuracy and consistency in performing these tasks. These various systems are rarely, if ever, designed to work with one another and often only interface with one another through a manual process. This is expensive, cumbersome, and does not result in an optimal tracking, monitoring, and evaluation of equipment inventory.
The allocation of inventory at a central warehouse or central inventory location to fill orders from satellite warehouses or service centers can be complicated and time consuming. Once an order has been allocated, the transportation of large, and often expensive equipment, such as distribution transformers, present numerous challenges and opportunities for inefficiencies.